Swim Workouts

Swam w/ Dave, Dave, Ray, Kyle and Danny. Sad day yesterday. My 8 yr old greyhound had to be put down due to quickly spreading bone cancer in his shoulder. 6 years ago, the greyhound rescue people brought Comet over with 3 other dogs for adoption. The other 3 explored the house anxiously. Comet jumped up on the couch, laid down and fell asleep. He really picked us more than we picked him. He was a very gentle dog. He tolerated 3 toddlers in the house and never did more than an annoyed whine to let us know he'd had enough. He never chased after cats, rabbits or other small animals as we were warned he might do. When he was younger, he would do solo runs around the back yard. After about 5 laps he was ready for a nap. He loved racing at the dog park. Once a pack of dogs started running somewhere, he would be clear out in front after about 4 steps... and then have to slow down because he didn't know where they were actually going. Comet was an awesome dog and will be sorely missed.

With the dog situation and a cold coming on, I wasn't exactly 100% into swimming today. It took a little time to get things off my mind and focus on swimming. The challenge set today was great for that. This was our last day: 10 x 100 IM on 1:25.

SCY

600 Warm up

Challenge set
6 x 50 - :50 IM Order/Free
2:00 Rest
10 x 100 IM - 1:25
100 Easy
Really stretched out the first one and took it as easy as possible. Came in at 1:20... faster than I thought. Second one had a little more effort - 1:22. Might be a problem. I didn't panic, just kept the pace and was prepared for touch and go for #4. Ended up back at 1:20 again. The whole set seemed to got like that. I'd come in at 1:22 and then back down to 1:20 and back up to 1:22 again. Had plenty left in the tank to finish on 1:15. Set complete! Now off to the next challenge.

5 x 200 - 3:00 Convert Free to Stroke
I converted free to back. Made 2:48 on the last one which I think is a personal best for backstroke. We don't do a lot of backstroke sets so I'm not completely sure. Dave converted to fly. Made me look bad .

We got to the pool today and it was a very light showing for the group. In the fast lane, we had 1 (ME), the second lane had 4 in it, and the 3rd lane was completely MIA. ???
Part of this may be from the immense fire that is happening in the Wenatchee area, and has blanketed most of the town in thick smoke. All outdoor sporting team events/practices have been cancelled until further notice. Lucky for us, we swim indoors (because this is Washington). Still, I think a lot of parents have their kids staying at home vs. going out and exerting themselves in this stuff. I understand completely.

This picture was taken by one of the Wenatchee World (local paper) photographers a day or two ago. This is more toward the north end of town, and I live out of the shot to the left side of the photo. Well, the new fire that has begun showing itself is now coming over the hill directly west of my house a few hills back. I'm honestly not too worried, but it's in the back of my mind. My house does have insurance, and I could use an 'upgrade' from my ol' 1922 baby.

This is the picture of the fire above my house (note this shot was taken by another person from a better vantage point of the fire across town). I can't see the fire from here, but it's out there. If I travel to the nearby city park I can see it clearly in the hills.

Well, I began to cramp in the first 100 of the first one, and removed my fins, then continued on doing the rest of them without fins. Didn't make the intervals, but I did get them done.

300 EZ and out

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5900 Yards

Well, I'm tired, and the coach suggested that I take one night off a week, at least for a little while until my body can fully build into these more intense, lengthier workouts. I agree with him, and have decided that tomorrow will be that day.

I thought I might feel a little boggey with yesterday's deep tissue cupping, but felt decent.

Forgot to report on some goggles I tried this summer at my long course meets. I first tried the new Speedo liquid storm goggles at Nationals. (I had needed some new meet goggles.) http://www.speedousa.com/product/ind...32044.12361075. They fit fairly well; I had some small leakage problems at nationals. But tightening and changing the nose piece made them pretty good racing goggles. I also was sent a free pair of Arena cobra racing goggles when I ordered my tech suits. http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/25209.htm. I absolutely love these goggles! The best I've ever used. Lil Fort loved them too and used them for several summer league races. I have reclaimed them and hidden them away.

I'm also very excited that we are having a local SCM meet this year, and in November. I'm not sure I've ever swum in a masters meet in November ... It's at Mason too! https://www.clubassistant.com/club/m...1481&smid=4182. I'm considering knocking a couple 100s off at this meet before my taper meet in December. Probably 100 fly and either 100 breast or 100 IM.

I was surprised to see the Santa Clara pool set up for short course when I walked in this morning - the first time I have seen it this way since May. I guess summer is officially over .

I only recently moved up to group 1 so this was the first time I have been with them short course and I wasn't sure which lane to swim in. There weren't very many people there for the beginning of warm-up and I didn't see anyone from the lane that I had been swimming in, so I made a guess and jumped in lane 6. It turns out that without knowing this moved me up to the 1:20 interval group, but this was good as I led the lane after warm-up and mostly stayed with the leader of the next lane over for the entire workout. It is funny - the last couple of workouts I have been thinking that I should move over a lane but I don't know most of the other swimmers or how fast they go so I probably wouldn't have moved on purpose for a while longer.

I always drink water or electrolyte mix throughout workout, but this morning I had several cups of water just after getting up (about a 1.5 hours before practice) and several more just before practice started. My right calf started twitching after the first round through the main set so I used a pull buoy for the second set of 100s and didn't cramp until the last lap of the last 100, and it wasn't bad enough to make me stop or even slow down much. I stretched it out on the recovery 25s and made it through the rest of the set without the pull buoy and without cramps. I don't know if the extra hydration helped or not, but I am going to keep this up to see if it makes a difference.

Keep it coming!! Tonight's workout was a good one. Lots of kicking, which I'm getting more used to, and a killer main set that I pushed hard to the end.

I led the lane for most of tonight's workout.

Warmup:

500 (25 Back/25 V-Sit Scull/25 Breast (1P, 2K)/25 Free DPS)

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20 x 50 IM Order @ 1:00

Flys :31/32s

Backs :38s

Breasts :39s

Frees :31/32s

24 x 25 Kick w/ fins

Odds @ :45 - "Core Kick" which is dolphin kick on your back with arms extended above your head and out of the water

Evens @ 1:00 - SDK underwater no breathers

Main Set:

5 Rounds of:

200 Free (Descend by rounds) @ 3:30

50 Free FAST @ 1:00

50 Free FAST @ :50 (on interval go back to the 200)

Awesome Main Set...this is why I do this to myself! And I can't exactly start off any slower 'cause I've got a 15 year old that's close enough behind to keep me honest (though he didn't descend like I did) My 200s were great! Started off here @ 2:16 on the 1st one, and the coach says "Nice job!!, now you get to descend from there! " Well, I made it:
2:16/2:15/2:14/2:12/2:09
My 50 FASTs were approx. :30s

400 EZ (50 Back 8/3/8 Drill, 50 Breast 1P/2K)

20 x 50 Kick w/ fins & board @ :50
Odds Flutter/Evens Dolphin
**cramped on the first one, massaged it out during the 2nd one, and did the remaining 18 without fins all flutter kick and made 'em. Basically a straight 900 kick fast though.

6 x 25 All Out Non-Free (did Fly) @ :45
SDK at least to the middle of the pool is the goal on each and race to the wall

300 EZ and out

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5400 Yards

Killer day...and if anyone wants to give this a go, be my guest. It works best with a few 15 year olds right on your @$$ the whole way though!

Went to bed late, slept late, didn't hear or get up with my alarm,
going to bed earlier tonight &
plan to get up at 5:30 tomorrow
Planned to lift yesterday but needed to go straight home
plan to lift today

Exchanged a few emails with Susan Ingraham about a SCM meet she's hosting Sat Dec 1 & Sun Dec 2 at Palo Alto in San Antonio
That's the one I'm training for now, though I might slip in another meet the week before Thanksgiving.

since I arrived late yesterday, I came back for noon practice, my 1st fall double, on the 5 x 200 frees on 2:20 Keith said let's hold 2:10's
I thought "yeah right."
but I went 2:10, 2:12, 2:11, 2:10, 2:08
which was a bit of a surprise

Our schedule is weird, we're at UT this week then back to Mabel Davis, next week

Swam with Dave, Dave, Keith, Ray and John. Scrimmaged with my U16 soccer team last night. One of my bigger players collided with me. Both of us were going for the ball and neither saw the other one. His shoulder hit square into my chest and I narrowly avoided splitting my lip on his head. My biggest concern was whether or not I had hurt him. Once I realized he was ok, I started thinking I might not be doing so well. Fortunately, I just had the breath knocked out of me and after a couple minutes I shook it off. So, I showed up at practice a little sore this morning and didn't expect to do a whole lot. Turned out to be a pretty good day.

SCY

600 Warm up

4 x 125 - 1:45 (Made 1:30s)
100 Easy

500 Free - 7:30 Dave pushed me pretty hard on this one. Made 6:05 which was a good bit faster than I though I was going.
2 x 300 Free - 4:30 (3:35, 3:31) Again, Dave was pushing me pretty hard and I was surprised to be closing on the 1:10 pace with a drag suit on.
100 Easy

Did another round of the above but I pulled out the paddles...
500 Pull - 7:30 (5:35) Apparently, I was good and warmed up at this point and ready to knock out 100s on a 1:07 pace. First time I've been under 6:00 on a 500 in a while.
2 x 300 Pull - 4:30 (3:25, 3:17)
100 Easy

Well, the head coach came back from the ASCA clinic with lots to tell the team, and his EXPECTATIONS of the group as well. I know he really wants to see improvement out of the kids compared with the year before, and stressed quite a few things:

Attention - respect for others, especially the coach, sets will be explained once, you miss it, you'd better figure out what you're doing. Rest between sets will be down to :30 to a minute MAX. More intensity, more effort expected, etc. I like this. I'm sure the kids are slightly scared, but I'm ready to go.

Hydration - all swimmers are dehydrated, even if they don't think so. Everyone needs more water throughout the day. Mandatory to bring a water bottle to workout. Next week --> No waterbottle...no swim for you!

Kicking - we will be doing kicking up the wazoo!! Fins, no fins, kicking with shoes on, kicking in all different sorts of ways. Be ready! Oh $#!+8@LL$ !!! is my thought to that, but I will do it.

...and something else, but I can't remember it now since I'm still working on the first one

Prior to this meeting the coach told me I didn't have to listen to this, and that I could get in and swim, but I told him that I'm part of the team, and want him to treat me as an equal as the other kids on the team, whether that is good or bad news for me. I told him to get after me if I'm screwing around just like he would with any others. He said, OK, Great!
Well, that took up about the first half hour of the practice, and after that we got started. Kind of a different workout today, but it was still very tough.

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Warmup:
400 (25 Breast/25 Fly) take 8 fast strokes of each, then free to the wall if needed. Some sort of Coach Salo thing that he got from the clinic.

8 x 100 Sculling @ 2:15 Alt. 25 sculling out front/25 sculling down past hips...head down the whole time on both

10 x 100 Kick w/ fins & board @ 1:30
flutter or dolphin - (did flutter and was 1:08-1:12s)
Funny here...I was going 5th in the lane (:20 after the leader), and the 4th person was gone by :08 seconds after the leader. The coach caught on to this and hammered the kids about watching the clock and maintaining the :05 sendoffs.

8 x 25 Sculling Jackknife Drill @ 1:00
I was one of the only ones who could do this. I think P90X came in handy.
Sculling hands at waist, going backwards, but with body in pike position like divers - legs straight with feet out of the water. This is hell on your forearms, but I did it better than most.

Only 4200 Yards tonight, but pretty intense stuff. I'm beat, but ready for more. I'm excited to work with my new coach, John Pringle. He used to coach on the west side of the mountains in the mid-late 90s/early 2000s, then after a pool closure went back east to somewhere in Boston coaching for a while, and has now returned to the northwest and is really turning around the team in a very positive direction.

** The 50s were supposed to be BR, but my foot was hurting from 2 soccer games on Sunday, so all 50s were a combination of BR swim, BR pull w/ buoy + strapless paddles, and FR swim w/ strapless paddles.

, September 10th, 2012 at 10:58 PM (Maple Syrup with a Side of Chlorine)

Felt great to hop into the pool for this first time since June. The renovations to the pool area look great - they bumped out the western wall along lane one about four feet, revealing new gray tiles o(since they couldn't find leftover beige and orange from the 70's) and a bright whitewashed wall. That means more spectator space! Energy efficient lighting has been added, although just around the perimeter of the pool, so it is a little dark in the center (might be better when sun comes through the new windows on the upper part of the wall). Did I say ?

So what to do? Since I only swam six times last month, I decided for an easy mile, complete with plenty of breaks throughout.

I might suggest that they move the analog clock since the new lighting casts a glare on the bottom half of the clock. I also chatted with one of the age group coaches about splitting costs on a portable clock for the shallow end, we shall see.

Plan for the rest of the week? Hope to get up early and join the Tri Train before work Wednesday, then meet with GregJS for an OW adventure on Thursday, something on Friday, then Masters practice on Saturday!

Did a slightly modified version of Workout #1 from my HIT forum. [ame="http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=21342"]U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums[/ame]. Didn't have time for the entire workout. With the generous intervals, it takes awhile to do that sucker. I seemed to have good speed. Still tired from the early Sunday wake up though.

Glad I had an ART appt scheduled. He worked over my shoulders and elbows. He is going to attempt to get me into a PRP study. (One of the participating doctors is my own PRP guy.) My elbows are a good candidate, and I still feel like I need one more PRP treatment on my left shoulder. Fingers crossed.

I worked on the palms down recovery some more in breast. I like it. I haven't made a stroke change in a long time, but this one I'm endorsing. I also think it puts less torque on the elbow by keeping the hand position constant.

I didn't think I would be able to make the 50s on :40 but I surprised myself. My calves were threatening to cramp by half way through the main set so I used a pull buoy for some of it, which kept them from seizing up.

Pulling at 1:30 interval, especially at the end of workout, is right at my limit so "strong" meant "make the interval". Which I did, if just barely by the end.

Swam w/ Ray, Dave, Dave, John, Kyle, Leah and someone new (didn't really meet her). Didn't play any soccer this weekend. I miss it but I don't miss the stiffness and soreness on Monday mornings. Felt pretty strong today especially with a full day of rest.

SCY

400 Warm up

8 x 200 IM - 3:00 (#4 was pull)
100 Easy
I don't think I've ever done a set with this much IM. Held 2:50s. Took a break on #4 but I didn't really need it. Should have just done them all IM.